What Is a ‘Perpetual Future’ and How Does It Differ from a Traditional Futures Contract?

A perpetual future, or 'perpetual swap,' is a non-expiring futures contract popular in the cryptocurrency market. Unlike a traditional future, it has no fixed maturity date, allowing positions to be held indefinitely.

It maintains its price alignment with the underlying spot price through a 'funding rate' mechanism, which is a periodic payment between long and short positions.